For the Love of Money and all things Beautiful
by Kagen Brown
Summary: Side story from the Fit to Burst Series. Happens just after Fit to Try. Cira's hunt for her parents.
1. Chapter 1

This is a side story from the Fit to Burst Series. This one happens a short time after the end of Fit to Try. Nihlus found some info on Cira's parents and sent it to her. Cira agreed to help design and build the Normandy but she wants to locate her parents first. Chapters probably won't be very long at all as this will just be a short little story. Enjoy.

* * *

There wasn't much info in what Nihlus sent to her but it was enough for Cira to be able to really begin her investigation. Mostly it was a complicated web of money transactions between bank accounts based all over the galaxy. Accounts that would have taken her years to access without Spectre authorization. There where gaps in the web, most likely where some other form of payment had been used aside from credits, but those pieces she could put together when she came to them. Closer examination of the web led her to the planet Vahn Conom and to a shipping company run by a Turian man named Dygiris. She was in a quiet little room now, waiting to talk to Dygiris. The Salarian receptionist kept peeking at her over half moon spectacles while pretending to be reading some kind of science magazine but Cira could feel the daggers shooting from the woman's pupils every time she glanced up. It made her antsy and she struggled to keep still in her plush armchair, her eyes stubbornly glued to the mundane pictures of scenery adorning the pale green walls. The fact that she might finally get some answers as to her parent's whereabouts only added to her nervousness. The steady increase in her back account attested to them still being alive, but they hadn't contacted her since before she was enrolled in Hailroy Academy. They hadn't even tried to reach her when the school was attacked. Cira could have died in that attack and her parents wouldn't know the difference. The thought brought cold and bitter tears to her eyes and she barely held them back as another Salarian woman stepped into the room and informed her that Dygiris was ready to see her.

* * *

"As you know I just run a simple shipping company. There is no record of any business transactions with a Carlo or Mira Roselli in my log book, so I'm very sorry but I can't help you."

Speaking with Dygiris hadn't been helpful. Cira had not been allowed to actually see his business logs so she had to take his word for it. If there were any personas that her parents may have used, she didn't know them, but still, Dygiris's name had come up multiple times when following the money trail from Nihlus so she knew that he was connected to her parents somehow. Maybe their transactions weren't in the official log book for a reason. Cira thanked him for his time and he walked her back out to the waiting room, where she took her leave. Maybe her parents had used a persona when dealing with Dygiris or maybe they hadn't but Cira had to see the log book for herself. After she left she ran a diagnostic of the building's security. It was well protected, but there weren't many buildings that she couldn't get into one way or another.

Later that night, Cira approached one of the outside vents on the building. She had taken a look at it earlier and knew that her little spool of Sizzle Wire (not the official name for it but it had a nice ring to it), would easily cut through. She pressed the wire along the perimeter of the grate and touched it with the little gun. The wire glowed blue and sank into the metal until the grate fell forward into Cira's waiting hands. She set the grate down to the side and crawled into the vent. It would be a bit of a climb to Dygiris's office but she could manage. She kept an eye out for anything in the vents that would trigger an alarm, but it seemed like Dygiris hadn't expected anyone to crawl in through the vents so for now she was ok. It took her about 25 minutes to reach the office. She peered down into the room, and seeing no one, pushed the grate open. At least she didn't have to cut through this one. From her scan of the building earlier, she knew that there wasn't much security inside the office. The console on the desk was protected, as were the locking filing cabinets and a safe in the corner. For now she would just take a look at the official log book which was kept in the second desk drawer on the left. She hacked into the camera systems and put the office cameras on a loop of the last 10 minutes recorded before dropping down into the room. After slipping on some gloves, she pulled open the drawer and pulled out the log book. She flipped through it page by page but did not see her parent's names and the few names that stood out to her, Habilin Jessop, Feria Cout, Nassana Dantius, Braytus Rhara, made no sense as personas, though she didn't really know much about her parents to judge what kind of name they would use. Still, the names had stood out so she wrote them down and filed them away for further investigation.

Next she examined the safe, the decryption was very complicated and it took her a while to get into it but she was able to open it successfully. There were credit chits in there and some more business ledgers that still did not contain her parent's names. She figured this ledger housed some of the less legal transactions that the shipping company undoubtedly took part in. But she wasn't here to investigate the company itself so she put the ledger back in its place and relocked the safe. The file cabinets were next. Cracking the locks on them was not nearly as difficult as the safe and in no time at all she was leafing through file after file, again, writing down any names that popped out at her. When she had finished she ran one more scan of the room to make sure she hadn't missed anything. This time her scan picked up another signal; one that it hadn't caught when she had scanned the building from outside. She followed the signal to the corner of the room, on the floor. A quick inspection revealed that the carpet could be lifted up from the corner, revealing a small trap door. Cira lifted it up and underneath was another safe. An examination revealed that this safe would take a great deal of time to get open and even if she was successful, there would be a signal sent out to the building security notifying them that someone was trying to get in to it. She assumed that Dygiris would give the guards some kind of code so they knew it was him, but they knew that he was not here now so they would know that it was an intruder. With her current equipment, she could jam the signal for a while, hopefully long enough for her to look at whatever was inside and get out before security arrived. She began hacking the door, picking her way carefully through multiple layers of codes and firewalls put together to keep whatever was in there safe from even the most determined thief. But Cira had to know what was in there and why it was so well guarded so she picked away at the defenses, taking almost 45 minutes before she finally cut through the final layer and the safe was now unlocked. Cira set up her signal jammer before pulling the door open and snatching the contents. A small book, about 3"x5". Cira pulled open the cover and read the name written on the first page.

_Jarot Rosen_

Now that was a persona that her parent's might have used. Cira tucked the book into a pocket and closed the safe back. If Dygiris didn't know that there was an intruder tonight, he would know the next time he looked for that book. Cira's jammer was down now and she knew that it was only a matter of time before the guards arrived so she hopped up onto the desk and jumped for the vent, just barely managing to grasp the edge and pull herself in, lowering the grate into place as a turian guard burst into the room. Cira didn't wait to see if he realized where she had disappeared to, but silently made her way back to the outside vent.

When she crawled out she heard shouting. There were security guards doing a sweep of the grounds around the building. Cira sprinted toward the next building, keeping to the shadows and activating her cloaking device as she went. If she got out of there quickly, she would be fine. As she turned the corner though, a guard, who apparently was smart enough to think to check the surrounding buildings, spotted her.

"Hey you!"

Cira didn't stop; she ran right up to him and knocked the gun out of his hands before he could even aim it at her. He grabbed at her, but she ducked under his arms and spun around behind him, kicking at the backs of his knees so he collapsed forward, then jumping onto his back, pulling a knife from her sleeve and jamming it into the exposed flesh at his neck. A gurgling, choking sound erupted from his throat and blood sprayed from his mouth as he tried to scream. Cira jumped off of him and darted away, knowing that he would be dead in a minute and not wanting to be around when his buddies found him.

She had found what she had hoped for. Another clue toward her parents and as badly as she wanted to stop now and read what was in that tiny book, she had to wait until she was safe and sound back on her ship.


	2. Chapter 2

It was his sixth day in this colony and frankly, Nihlus wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. He didn't have anything against humans but the humans here kind of freaked him out. They were too… touchy for his taste, always had their hands on him in some form; his shoulders, arms, chest, legs. It was like they'd never seen a turian before. He was here by choice of course. He had rescued a human girl on his last official mission and figured he'd deliver her home personally. When he had, the girl's family had asked that he investigate some strange disappearances that had been occurring over the past few months. The council didn't have much interest in solving the problems of human colonies but Nihlus was not so cold as to leave without doing anything, so he had begun by searching the colony, investigating all of the residents, then searching the abandoned buildings in the dead lands, which is what the colonists called the areas of the planet where no crops would grow. There weren't many buildings in these areas, of course, the planet wasn't very large and there was only the one colony so it hadn't taken him to long. He just had one more building to check before he would be sure that the missing colonists were no longer on this world. In that case, he may ask the council to step in and send another Spectre. He wanted to help them but after his last mission he needed a break before tackling what could turn out to be a slaver ring.

He quickly cleared the perimeter of the last abandoned building to make sure there were no guards. Everything seemed alright so, with his gun at the ready, he kicked the door open. There was no one to be seen, at least on this floor. Nihlus was about to head up to the second floor when he heard a muffled cry from downstairs. He raced down the steps, being as quiet as he could, following the declarations of pain until he found the room they were in. He kicked this door in as well and took in the scene before him. There was a turian male tied up to a chair, blood streaming from the side of his face where his captor had apparently whacked him with the butt of her pistol. Nihlus leveled his gun at the assailant, ready to fire if he had to, until she turned around.

"Cira? Spirits, what are you doing?"

It seemed to take her a while to register that it was her friend standing in front of her. When her brain caught up, she smiled broadly and waved to him.

"Hey Nihlus! I didn't know you were here. How have you been?"

"Oh, I'm pretty good, just going around saving people. Spectre stuff. How about you?"

"I'm cool thanks. Just trying to find my parents. Thanks for the info by the way. I don't think I thanked you in person."

"It was no problem. Glad to help. Now what are you doing?"

Cira turned back to her prisoner who had been watching their exchange with disbelieving eyes.

"Oh, I found out that my parents were receiving several shipments but I couldn't figure out where they were delivered to."

"So you kidnapped the delivery boy?"

"Yes. But he won't tell me anything. I'm going to get an answer though, won't I?"

This last part was directed at the delivery boy in question who shook his head enthusiastically, determined to keep quiet. Cira scowled at him and raised her gun to hit him again. But Nihlus darted toward her, catching her wrist before she could make contact. She glanced up at him questioningly.

"Let me talk to him for a bit."

She didn't even take a second to consider the suggestion. She nodded once and walked quickly out of the room. Nihlus sighed and rubbed a palm against his face before turning his attention back to the prisoner.

"Dude, she's gonna kill you… I'm sure what she's got planned is going to be far worse than what will happen if your boss finds out you broke your confidentiality agreement."

He considered this for a moment then nodded his consent. Nihlus smirked, "Good choice."

He left the room briefly to retrieve Cira and when they both returned the Turian delivery boy gave them what information he had.

Apparently the packages had been delivered to a warehouse owned by a 47 year old human woman named Ginnie Harver. From what Cira could tell, Harver was a completely ordinary person; she was the manager of a Wal-Mart a few blocks from her home and had been there for almost 27 years. She was single, with her two nieces and a three dogs living with her.

Her brother had been in the Alliance and had been killed in action; his wife then promptly decided that she would rather eat a bullet then remain alive to care for their two daughters. Thus the girls moved in with Ginnie. Cira could find nothing about her that would link the woman to her parents, but that didn't mean she didn't know anything. It was worth paying her a visit. After all, the packages that her parents ordered were stored at Ginnie's warehouse for however long so she at least had a business relationship with them.

Cira pressed her hands over her eyes. She was finally on the path to getting some answers, after all of this time but…

"What if they don't want me to find them?"

Nihlus looked up from his omni-tool. They were both now in the cockpit of Cira's little ship. He had been running diagnostics on the ships systems and as he had expected, it was probably the best vehicle you could find in the galaxy. But examining it could come later; for now, his friend needed him. Cira lowered her head until it rested on the console in front of her.

"Why else would they have left in the first place? Why else would they make it so hard for me to find them?"

"Does it matter?"

She uncovered one of her eyes to peak out at him. "What do you mean 'does it matter'?"

"You want to find them. You want to know what happened to them and it seems to me that they owe you some answers. Would you be able to live with yourself if you didn't at least try?"

She shook her head slowly.

"Well there you go. If they don't want to be found, that's their problem. Worry about yourself first."

"But what if I don't like what I find? They've been gone for so long…what if the people I find aren't my parents anymore?"

Nihlus reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, comforting her.

"Then you have me and you have Saren. He'll never admit it but I have no problem thinking of you as family. Kind of like the little sister I never had… wait, no that doesn't work, we were dating."

"Saren thinks of me as family?"

"Well, maybe not family yet, but definitely a potential mate."

Cira smirked, "We're already 'mating' Nihlus."

"Ha ha, trust me I know. But I mean a serious mate, a bond mate."

_Oh…_

The thought definitely surprised her. Saren wasn't known for being friendly towards humans and though she appeared to be an exception, Cira hadn't thought that Saren would ever want to marry her. At least she guessed that "bond mate" was equivalent to wife.

"Why would Saren bond with a human?"

"Well technically he doesn't see you as human first, but as Cira. He respects you and your abilities and to be honest, he's really not that sought after in the marriage market. I think that the affection you've shown him has made him see you in that way."

Cira beamed at him looking slightly proud as well. She should be. She had blown through the protective shell of the most stubborn Turian Nihlus had ever met. It was definitely an accomplishment. A flash of realization crosses Cira's face as she remembers what they had been talking about before the conversation turned to Saren.

"We were talking about what would happen if I didn't find my parents."

"And I made you forget all about it didn't I."

Cira punched him lightly on the arm and charted a course to Lenistine. While Nihlus leaned back in his chair, ready to doze off.

"You'll be fine Roselli."


End file.
